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Polysemous Agent Nominals in Kambaata (Cushitic)*

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Polysemous Agent Nominals in Kambaata (Cushitic)* Author manuscript, published in "Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 64, 4 (2011) 369-381" Published 2011in: Luschützky, Hans-Christian & Franz Rainer (eds.) 2011. Agent-noun polysemy in a cross-linguistic perspective. Special issue of Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 64, 4: 369-381 [This is a pre-publication version. Please quote the final published version.] YVONNE TREIS (La Trobe University) Polysemous Agent Nominals in Kambaata (Cushitic)* Kambaata has a morpheme -aan with which agent nominals can be derived from verbs and nouns. The present article discusses, firstly, the morphological and syntactic characteristics of -aan nominals and the specific problem of which word class they should be assigned to. Secondly, it is shown that the -aan morpheme is multifunctional. Apart from agent nominals, it is used to derive instrument, place and patient nominals. 1. Introduction Kambaata belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum, more precisely to the Highland East Cushitic (HEC) language group. The hitherto little documented language is spoken by more than 600,000 speakers in an area approximately 300 km south-west of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The lan- guage has a robust noun-verb distinction and a (sub-)word class of adjectives.1 Kambaata is strictly suffixing and has a rich verbal and nominal morphology. One of its derivational morphemes, the agentive morpheme -aan, productively gener- ates agent nominals on the basis of verbs. In the present article, the formal features (section 2) as well as the meaning and use of -aan nominals (section 3) are dis- cussed. In a language without a documented history, agent nominals can only be analysed in a synchronic perspective.2 The present work is intended to supplement the vast literature on agentive derivations that is predominantly concerned with Indo-European languages. This study is based on a corpus of spontaneously pro- duced recorded data, elicited data and data from written sources. In addition, pub- lished works are consulted. First examples for derived agent nominals in Kambaata halshs-00717269, version 1 - 12 Jul 2012 are given in LESLAU (1952, 1956), HUDSON (1976) and SHELEME (1989). Though sketchy, these previous works already point to some of the important features of * Research for this paper was supported in part by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemein- schaft (DFG) and by a La Trobe Post-doctoral Research Fellowship; this support is gratefully acknowledged. I am indebted to my consultants Tessema Handiso and Deginet Wotango. Thanks are also due to Abeba Matewos, Getahun Hellebo, Berhanu Erango, Getahun Jorga, Ermias Hiri- go and Mulugeta Eyoel for replying to my questionnaire. I am grateful to Gerrit J. Dimmendaal and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. 1 As argued in TREIS (2008: 81-97), Kambaata has four open word classes: nouns, verbs, attributes (with the sub-word classes adjectives, numerals and demonstratives) and ideophones/interjections. 2 The earliest lexical account of Xambaaro, a Kambaata dialect, is BORELLI (1890). The very first grammatical information on Kambaata is provided in CERULLI (1925) and MORENO (1939). the -aan morpheme and its derivates. All HEC languages share a cognate “agentive suffix” (HUDSON 1976: 273f). 2. Form The Kambaata agent nominal has the following morphological structure: STEM-aan-NUMBER-CASE(-GENDER) Though deverbal agent nominals are much more common (1), it was noted as early as in LESLAU (1952: 351) that -aan is also attached to nominal bases (2).3 (1) kiil-aan-ch-ú ‘magician’ (L52: 351)4 < kiil- ‘do magic’ kaas-aan-ch-ú ‘planter’ (K8: 8) < kaas- ‘plant’ amma’nn-aan-ch-ú ‘believer’ < amma’nn- ‘believe’ raga’-aan-ch-ú ‘heir’ < raga’- ‘inherit’ zaakkoot-aan-ch-ú-ta ‘alcohol trader (F)’ < zaakkoot- ‘trade alcohol’ (2) lokk-aan-ch-ú ‘pedestrian’ (L52: 351) < lokk-á-ta ‘foot’ qomaax-aan-n-ú ‘lepers’ (K8: 47) < qomaax-á ‘leprosy’5 maz-aan-ch-ú ‘wounded person’ (K5: 9) < maz-á-ta ‘wound’ Verbal bases of agent nominals may be bare roots (3) or extended verbs, i.e. causa- tive (4-5), middle (6), passive (7) or reciprocal stems (8). In rare cases, agent nomi- nals are derivates of compound stems (9). Complex nominal stems are not attested as the input of the agentive derivation. (3) ros-aan-ch-ú ‘student’ < ros- ‘learn’ (4) ros-is-aan-ch-ú ‘teacher’ < ros-is- ‘cause to learn’ (5) il-siis-aan-ch-ú-ta ‘midwife’ (F) < il-siis- ‘cause to give birth’ (6) uucc-aqq-aan-chú ‘beggar’ < uucc-aqq- ‘beg for one’s benefit’ (7) xa’mm-am-aan-ch-ú ‘person questioned’ < xa’mm-am- ‘be asked’ (K8: 55) (8) beeqq-am-aan-ch-ú ‘participant’ < beeqq-am- ‘participate’ (K8: 28) (9) giir-qas-aan-ch-ú ‘bonfire’ < giir-á-ta ‘fire’ + qas- ‘pierce’ halshs-00717269, version 1 - 12 Jul 2012 3 The morpheme -aan is only rarely attested on adjectival stems (Treis 2008: 268, 282). Kambaata thus confirms DRESSLER’s cline of the preferred bases of agent noun formation: verb > noun > adjective (DRESSLER 1986: 524). Due to the lack of reliable data, however, de-adjectival derivates are excluded from the present analysis. 4 Kambaata examples cited from earlier works (LESLAU 1952, 1956; SHELEME 1989; HUDSON 1976, 1989; BERHANU 1986) are adjusted to the official Kambaata orthography (MAATEWOOS 1992; TREIS 2008: 73-79) to enable easier comparison of the examples. In addition to this, stress is marked and, if necessary, the transcription of these data is corrected. 5 The base noun is an Amharic loan. Interestingly, Amharic ቈመጣ qwämat’a designates the patient (‘leper’), while the disease is referred to by the derived noun ቈመጣ qwəmt’ənna ‘leprosy’ (KANE 1990: 708f). The agentive morpheme is obligatorily followed by at least two morphemes, the first one being a number morpheme. The singulative morpheme -ch marks singular reference. The form with a doubled stem-final consonant is used for plural refer- ence (10).6 Number morphemes precede case suffixes, e.g. the morpheme -ú, which marks the accusative on masculine agent nominals.7 When the agent nominal has a feminine referent, the gender marker -ta is added in the accusative; see (5). (10) mogga’-aan-ch-ú(-ta) M.SG (F.SG) ‘thief’ / mogga’-aan-n-ú PL ‘thieves’ Agent nominals share morphological and syntactic features with nouns, verbs and adjectives. As phrasal heads, agent nominals inflect like nouns and distinguish as many case forms as the latter do: accusative, nominative, genitive, dative, ablative, instrumental-comitative-perlative, locative and oblique (TREIS 2008: 103). In (11), the first agent nominal is ablative-marked as the head of the standard NP, the sec- ond agent nominal is nominative-marked as the head of the subject NP. Like nouns, agent nominals can be modified by genitive nouns (12) and adjectives (13). (11) xah-í dimb-aan-n-íichch seel-í dimb-áan-ch-u woyy-áno word-M.GEN be:drunk-AAN-PL-M.ABL beer-M.GEN be:drunk-AAN-SG-M.NOM be:better-3M.IPV A beer drunkard is better than word drunkards. [Proverb] (12) mixaad-í (M.GEN) shiinsh-aan-ch-ú ‘griddle wiper’ < shiinsh- ‘wipe’ haraqé (F.GEN) ag-aan-n-ú ‘spirits drinkers’ < ag- ‘drink’ maganzeeb-ó (F.GEN) moos-aan-n-ú ‘patients of the rainbow [disease]’ < moos- ‘be(come) sick’ (13) woyy-á lallab-aan-ch-ú ‘better orator’ < lallab- ‘speak in public’ hoolam-á zazzal-aan-n-ú ‘many traders’ < zazzal- ‘trade’ Although they are to a certain extent noun-like, deverbal agent nominals reflect (“inherit”) the argument structure of their verbal bases. Like verbs, they are able to govern objects (14). Though commonly modified by adjectives (13), they may also be modified by adverbs (15). (14) maal-á (ACC) it-áan-ch-o (K4: 33) ‘[you] meat eater’ oddishsh-á-ta (ACC) gob-aan-ch-ú (H89: 148) ‘tailor’ [lit. “clothes sewer”] jeechch-ú-ta (ACC) abbis-aan-ch-ú (K4: 18) ‘punctual person’ [lit. “time re- specter”] halshs-00717269, version 1 - 12 Jul 2012 (15) […] danáam-o-ga xawaaqq-aan-ch-ú ass-íi dand-áno good-M.OBL-ADV speak-AAN-SG-M.ACC do-M.DAT be:able-3M.IPV [A sound rhetorical education] can produce a good [lit. “well”] speaker. Deverbal agent nominals are even capable of governing more or less elaborate sub- 8 ordinate clauses; see the converb clauses preceding the agent nominals in (16-18). 6 K’abeena and Alaaba, Kambaata’s closest relatives, have slightly different plural forms: -aan-ú in K’abeena (CRASS 2005: 73) and -aan-ú-ta in Alaaba (SCHNEIDER-BLUM 2007: 147). 7 The accusative case form is also the citation form. 8 Consult SCHNEIDER-BLUM (2007: 147, ex. 411) for an Alaaba example in which an agent nominal is modified by a converb. Rather than just taking verbal stems as its basis, the -aan morpheme can be consid- ered as being attached to a complete (more or less complex) verb phrase (cf. DRESSLER 1986: 522), including objects and adverbial constituents such as converb clauses, as indicated by the square brackets in the first lines of (16)-(18). (16) [maqées-s it]-áan-ch-o (K4: 33) do:with:force-2SG.PCO eat-AAN-SG-M.OBL [you] forceful eater [lit. “forcefully eater”] (17) [gamball-á ít-t wojj-ú cin]-áan-ch-o (K4: 33) black-M.ACC eat-2SG.PCO white-M.ACC shit-AAN-SG-M.OBL [you] black eat[er] [and] white shitter (18) [ga”-aqq-án-t beeqq-án-t it]-áan-ch-o (K4: 33) call-MID-PASS-2SG.PCO divide.MID-PASS-2SG.PCO eat-AAN-SG-M.OBL [you] assemble[r], share[r] [and] eater9 It is not yet clear what makes speakers prefer a [Complement V-]aan-ch-ú (as, e.g., in (14)) to a [Genitive] [V-]aan-ch-ú construction (as, e.g., in (12)).
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